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#WantedWednesday: Homicide Detective Mark Veney

Adnan Syed

In February 2016, when Adnan Syed’s case was remanded back to the Circuit Court so he could make a case for post-conviction relief, lead prosecutor Thiru Vignarajah called upon Detective Veney for help.

The State called a surprise last-minute witness named “Officer Steve”, a former security guard at Woodlawn Public Library found by Veney. Veney’s notes from the witness interview suggest this witness was to give damning testimony to contradict Syed’s alibi witness. When the witness took the stand, he provided no such testimony. Veney’s interview notes were inaccurate and reflected a purposeful attempt to influence testimony.

The case’s chief alibi witness, Asia McClain Chapman, details a situation involving Veney intimidating a friend of hers. This friend, Stacie, speaks of an encounter in which a plainclothes BPD officer showed up at her house after 10 pm. This officer proceeded to bang on her door loudly enough to scare her and wake up her three children. The officer identified himself as Mark Veney. The situation, as Asia recounts, left Stacie visibly scared, intimidated, and infuriated by how upset Veney made her children.

Keith Davis, Jr.

Veney has been the lead detective in the murder case against Keith Davis, Jr. – a case that first begins on June 7, 2015, with a brutal police-involved shooting in which police shot at Davis 44 times, striking him 3 times, in a case of mistaken identity. Davis survived. Davis was still subsequently charged despite not being the original robbery suspect that police chased to begin with. Davis was acquitted of all 15 charges except one due to a technicality.

Suspiciously, very shortly after his acquittal, investigators claimed they recovered a gun near Davis that matched shell casings found at the murder scene of Kevin Jones earlier that same day, June 7. Veney is the lead investigator in the Jones murder. Veney has engaged in forms of intimidation, falsification, witness misconduct, and purposeful negligence similar to and at times more egregious than those detailed above in the Adnan Syed case. Details of these behaviours cannot be divulged as legal proceedings are continuing into a now 3rd homicide trial. The first ended in a mistrial from an 11-1 hung jury in favour of Davis. The second ended ultimately in an overturned conviction leading to this now 3rd homicide trial.

Davis will stand trial for a 4th time (3rd homicide trial) on June 8, 2018, for the events of June 7, 2015 – events of which he has maintained his full innocence since being the victim of police brutality.

Mark Veney is still lead detective.

#WantedWednesday is a weekly public service announcement that exposes different Baltimore Police officers still employed despite numerous incidents of excessive force, false arrest, harassment, and false imprisonment.

We encourage community members to contact us with stories and complaints about specific Baltimore Police officers so that we can publicly document and expose their behaviour.